The UAE can be a regional ‘role model’ for women’s economic empowerment: UN Women Deputy Executive Director

In the region, the UAE can be a role model for economic gender equality, given its policies, including a decree stipulating equal wages for women and men in the private sector (passed in 2020), which indicate how seriously the government takes female economic empowerment, said Anita Bhatia, assistant secretary general and deputy executive director at UN Women.

In an exclusive interview with Arabian Business, Bhatia explained that this is not enough, however, as private sector implementation is vital to drive meaningful progress.

What has been achieved for women’s economic empowerment in the year since we last celebrated International Women’s Day on March 9?

It is really hard to look at progress in one year increments; you need a longer time especially during the pandemic.

If I had to tell you how things have changed, I’d probably be telling you a story of things going backwards. This is because the pandemic hit women so badly in terms of their income, health and security.

So many women lost their jobs because the sectors that closed down when the pandemic hit were heavily feminised and include retail, hospitality and tourism, among others.

Health was very badly effected as well because governments were so focused on Covid-19 that they neglected women’s health services in terms of reproductive health and other issues that really matter to women.

In terms of security, unfortunately, we saw a huge spike in violence against women during the pandemic everywhere in the world.

However, there is generally more global recognition of the need to have more women in decision making and leadership roles. We did see changes globally with Germany just getting the first gender-equal cabinet, for example, and we’re seeing more countries adopting feminist development policies so there are some positive changes in the last few years as well.

Can you comment on the UAE’s role in driving female economic empowerment?

The great thing about the UAE in particular, and which is why I think it can be a role model for the rest of the region, is that the government here takes the gender equality agenda very seriously.

It’s in the Women’s Pavilion in the Expo, it’s talked about by everyone not just those who are “in charge” of gender, and the government also walks the talk in terms of the women’s peace and security agenda.

How can the public sector work with the private sector to drive women advancement in the workforce?

It is one thing to have a policy on the books – it is great for governments to pass laws. But laws are pretty meaningless if you don’t implement them. So where the rubber hits the road is are people actually doing it?

This can never be solved by the public sector alone, although I think governments have a very important role to play in creating the enabling environment and in doing things such as ensuring there is legislation.

But then this legislation’s implementation is done at the private sector level because it’s not just about equal pay for equal work in the government but also in the private sector. Given that the private sector is the largest employer in many parts of the world, it really matters that it begins to implement these laws.

How can this be achieved?

I think the private sector is changing because everybody realises that paying attention to sustainability is important for the bottom line.

It is not just the right thing to do but the smart thing to do. Many companies, because of their business model, have an intrinsic interest in pushing SDG 5 but there are a lot of companies that, in terms of business outcomes, have not yet seen how this is  related to the bottom line.

But that is changing and I am very optimistic about the direction in which private sector work on gender is moving.

Remote and flexible work is nowadays commonplace following the pandemic. How is this impacting female participation in the workforce?

It has some downsides but mainly it is advantageous. You don’t have to spend hours commuting for one thing and flexible work at home means you have a more balanced way of managing your care responsibilities – be it child or elderly care.

The downside is that the boundaries between work and non-work life get blurred so sometimes you end up working more when you do flexible work.

What can be done to have more women representation at the boardroom and C suite levels? Are you in favour of a quota here?

I am not opposed to quotas in leadership because I think the situation is so bad in some industries that if you don’t have quotas you will never get to see women there.

There should be quotas for women in board and for leadership roles there should be very strong company policies that leadership teams should be diverse and reflect the world we live in. We do not live in a world where men are 70 percent of the population so why would your board or leadership team reflect that? So if you really want to reflect the world in your leadership than you need to have a team which is diverse in gender, race, ethnicity etc.

What impact does climate change have on women specifically and what would having more women in decision making roles impact sustainability?

Women are disproportionately effected by climate change but conversely they can come up with solutions because they understand circumstances and are able to produce solutions that make sense and will work.

So we need to have women at the decision making table in all climate issues and climate risk discussions so they are able to articulate sensible responses and bring to the table elements that men have not thought of.